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Viewtron

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</style><table class="infobox vevent"><caption class="infobox-title summary">Viewtron</caption><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><div class="infobox-caption">Viewtron opening menu screen</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Developer</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Knight_Ridder" title="Knight Ridder">Knight-Ridder</a>, <a href="AT%26T_Corporation" title="AT&T Corporation">AT&T</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Type</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="Videotex" title="Videotex">Videotex</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Launch date</th><td class="infobox-data">1983 (1983)</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Discontinued</th><td class="infobox-data">March 31, 1986 (1986-03-31)</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="Computing_platform" title="Computing platform">Platform(s)</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="NAPLPS" title="NAPLPS">NAPLPS</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Status</th><td class="infobox-data">Discontinued</td></tr></tbody></table>

Viewtron was an <a href="Online_service" class="mw-redirect" title="Online service">online service</a> offered by <a href="Knight_Ridder" title="Knight Ridder">Knight-Ridder</a> and <a href="AT%26T_Corporation" title="AT&T Corporation">AT&T</a> from 1983 to 1986. Patterned after the <a href="Post_Office_Telecommunications" class="mw-redirect" title="Post Office Telecommunications">British Post Office</a>'s <a href="Prestel" title="Prestel">Prestel</a> system,<a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a> it started as a <a href="Videotex" title="Videotex">videotex</a> service requiring users to have a special terminal, the <a href="AT%26T_Sceptre" title="AT&T Sceptre">AT&T Sceptre</a>. As <a href="Home_computers" class="mw-redirect" title="Home computers">home computers</a> became important in the marketplace, the development focus shifted to <a href="IBM" title="IBM">IBM</a>, <a href="Apple_Inc." title="Apple Inc.">Apple</a>, <a href="Commodore_International" title="Commodore International">Commodore</a> and other <a href="Personal_computer" title="Personal computer">personal computers</a>.<a href="#cite_note-Poynter_online_article_about_Viewtron-2">[2]</a>

Viewtron differed from contemporary services like <a href="CompuServe" title="CompuServe">CompuServe</a> and <a href="The_Source_(online_service)" title="The Source (online service)">The Source</a> by emphasizing news from <a href="The_Miami_Herald" class="mw-redirect" title="The Miami Herald">The Miami Herald</a> and <a href="Associated_Press" title="Associated Press">Associated Press</a> and <a href="E-commerce" title="E-commerce">e-commerce</a> services from <a href="J._C._Penney" class="mw-redirect" title="J. C. Penney">JCPenney</a> and other merchants over computer-oriented services such as file downloads or online chat. Intended to be "the <a href="McDonald's" title="McDonald's">McDonald's</a> of videotex," Viewtron was specifically targeted toward users who would be apprehensive about using a computer.<a href="#cite_note-uiowa.edu-3">[3]</a>

Viewtron also offered airline schedules from the <a href="Official_Airline_Guide" class="mw-redirect" title="Official Airline Guide">Official Airline Guide</a> (OAG), <a href="Real_estate" title="Real estate">real estate</a> research from <a href="Century_21_Real_Estate" title="Century 21 Real Estate">Century 21</a>, <a href="E-cards" class="mw-redirect" title="E-cards">e-cards</a> from <a href="Hallmark_Cards" title="Hallmark Cards">Hallmark</a>, product information from <a href="Consumer_Reports" title="Consumer Reports">Consumer Reports</a>, educational software from <a href="Scott_Foresman" title="Scott Foresman">Scott Foresman</a>, <a href="Online_auctions" class="mw-redirect" title="Online auctions">online auctions</a>, financial services from <a href="American_Express" title="American Express">American Express</a> and <a href="EF_Hutton" title="EF Hutton">EF Hutton</a>, as well as limited <a href="Online_banking" title="Online banking">online banking</a> services as part of a research program into the uses and costs of banking online that included 20 US and Canadian banks.<a href="#cite_note-uiowa.edu-3">[3]</a>

At its height, Viewtron was operated in at least 15 cities by various newspaper companies. After six years of research and an investment reportedly in excess of $50 million, Viewtron never turned a profit, and, despite its developer's forecasts of breaking even in two years, Knight Ridder did not expect it ever would be profitable. <a href="AT%26T" title="AT&T">AT&T</a> had invested over $100 million in the project, but was forced to <a href="Write_off" class="mw-redirect" title="Write off">write off</a> that investment as part of its <a href="Breakup_of_the_Bell_System" title="Breakup of the Bell System">court-ordered breakup</a>. Viewtron closed on March 31, 1986, after an attempt by the Independent Commodore Users Group to buy the service failed.<a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a><a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a>

A feature tying Viewtron to local newspapers was envisioned, with printed text instructing users how to access further information online, but it was never implemented.<a href="#cite_note-Viewtron_Remembered_Roundtable-6">[6]</a>

In 2008, <a href="PCWorld" class="mw-redirect" title="PCWorld">PCWorld</a> magazine named Viewtron to a list of the biggest project failures in <a href="Information_technology" title="Information technology">information technology</a> (IT) history.<a href="#cite_note-PCWorld_Project_Failures-7">[7]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Technical_details">Technical details</h2></div>

Hosted on a <a href="Fault-tolerant" class="mw-redirect" title="Fault-tolerant">fault-tolerant</a> <a href="Tandem_Computers" title="Tandem Computers">Tandem/16</a> <a href="Minicomputer" title="Minicomputer">minicomputer</a>, Viewtron used the <a href="NAPLPS" title="NAPLPS">NAPLPS</a> graphics language to provide a user interface that was graphically sophisticated by the standards of the time. According to <a href="Chip_Bok" title="Chip Bok">Chip Bok</a>, screens were crafted so as they loaded, elements would be drawn in sequence, "the way you would tell a story."<a href="#cite_note-Viewtron_Remembered_Roundtable-6">[6]</a> Unlike <a href="HTML" title="HTML">HTML</a>, NAPLPS allowed screen elements that remained unchanged through different pages of a story to remain static, an important concern with the low bandwidth 300-2400 <a href="Baud" title="Baud">baud</a> <a href="Modem" title="Modem">modems</a> then in use.

Despite being initially restricted to the <a href="Chiclet_keyboard" title="Chiclet keyboard">chiclet keyboard</a>-equipped AT&T Sceptre terminal, Viewtron's developers foresaw that general purpose <a href="Personal_computer" title="Personal computer">personal computers</a> would soon become the preferred way to consume online content. The Viewtron software was written from the beginning to be easily portable, and the work was able to be completed within 24 hours after the decision to refocus on <a href="Home_computer" title="Home computer">home computer</a> development.<a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a>

Viewtron did not initially allow users to send <a href="Private_message" title="Private message">private messages</a> to each other, a conscious decision by Knight Ridder to exert editorial control.<a href="#cite_note-9">[9]</a> Knight Ridder's vision for the service was offering products and services for users to <a href="Consumer" title="Consumer">consume</a>, not in providing a medium for communication.<a href="#cite_note-10">[10]</a> When interactive features were later added, Knight Ridder discouraged their use, fearing that users interacting directly with each other would lead to a "<a href="Dystopia" title="Dystopia">dystopia</a> without newspapers."<a href="#cite_note-11">[11]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Service_history">Service history</h2></div>

Known as "<a href="Bowsprit" title="Bowsprit">Bowsprit</a>", Viewtron underwent a test period in 125 upper-income homes<a href="#cite_note-12">[12]</a> in <a href="Coral_Gables%2C_Florida" title="Coral Gables, Florida">Coral Gables, Florida</a> from 1980-1981, where it was determined that customers would pay up to $600 for the required terminal.<a href="#cite_note-13">[13]</a><a href="#cite_note-14">[14]</a> The stability of the <a href="Southern_Bell" title="Southern Bell">Southern Bell</a> phone system that would carry the data was also a factor in the launch location.<a href="#cite_note-15">[15]</a> The service went live in south Florida (<a href="Miami-Dade_County%2C_Florida" title="Miami-Dade County, Florida">Dade</a>, <a href="Broward_County%2C_Florida" title="Broward County, Florida">Broward</a>, <a href="Monroe_County%2C_Florida" title="Monroe County, Florida">Monroe</a>, and <a href="Palm_Beach_County%2C_Florida" title="Palm Beach County, Florida">Palm Beach</a> counties) on October 30, 1983.<a href="#cite_note-16">[16]</a> Viewtron expanded to include all of Florida in 1984 and to other U.S. cities by 1985. After Viewtron went national, its subscriber base quickly grew from 3,000 users to 20,000.<a href="#cite_note-17">[17]</a> Despite its rapid growth, Viewtron soon learned that the majority of users dropped their subscriptions after six months, and the most used areas of the service among the remaining users were not Viewtron's news feeds, but the email and live chat.<a href="#cite_note-18">[18]</a>

At the service's introduction, customers could buy the AT&T terminal but after May 1984 it was only offered for rental at $39.95 per month, which included a subscription to the service. Other customers paid $12 per month, plus a $1 hourly charge for access. After October 1985, Viewtron was carried nationally over the <a href="Tymnet" title="Tymnet">Tymnet</a>, <a href="Telenet" title="Telenet">Telenet</a>, and <a href="Telmex" title="Telmex">Uninet</a> time sharing networks in the US, and by <a href="DATAPAC" title="DATAPAC">Datapac</a> in Canada at a surcharge of 9 cents per minute on nights and weekends, and 22 cents per minute on weekdays.<a href="#cite_note-19">[19]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Demise">Demise</h2></div>

Shortly after Viewtron's launch, Vice President Reid Ashe circulated a memo noting slower than expected sales and infrequent usage patterns. The memo drew the conclusion that people saw the service as a "toy" and weren't integrating Viewtron into their daily news routine. A <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crossed_out" class="extiw external" title="wikt:crossed out">crossed out</a> statement in the memo discussed the differences between the newspaper business and online information delivery, noting the latter's lower cost of entry, lower profit margins, and likely increased competition. The act of crossing out this statement has been taken as a sign of Knight Ridder's unwillingness to recognize the changes in the news business that new technology was bringing and called into question Knight Ridder's intentions for Viewtron.<a href="#cite_note-20">[20]</a><a href="#cite_note-21">[21]</a>

On March 31, 1985 the group within Knight Ridder responsible for developing Viewtron wrote Knight Ridder's board of directors advocating a new direction, one that pursued business and personal computer applications. The memo recommended lowering the monthly price of the service, discontinuing the AT&T terminal to concentrate on home computer development, and conducting another review in six months. The memo pointed out that this direction was preferable because it would compete with the newspapers less than the existing service.<a href="#cite_note-22">[22]</a>

Viewtron's downfall came when Knight Ridder discovered at the end of 1985 that, despite the bulk of its expenses going toward the service's news feeds, users were spending most of their online time using Viewtron's less-profitable email, message boards, and educational areas.<a href="#cite_note-23">[23]</a>

Instead of effectively becoming an <a href="Online_service_provider" title="Online service provider">online service provider</a>, Knight Ridder decided to concentrate on its core news business,<a href="#cite_note-24">[24]</a> and Viewtron was discontinued on March 31, 1986.<a href="#cite_note-25">[25]</a> According to <a href="Philip_Meyer" title="Philip Meyer">Philip Meyer</a>, director of News and Circulation Research for Knight Ridder at the time, "We made the mistake of thinking in newspaper analogies. Thus the central computer was like a printing press in our minds, and telephone wires were the delivery trucks... . As newspaper people, we were looking for a community-based natural monopoly, like a newspaper, but without the variable costs of paper, ink, and transportation."<a href="#cite_note-Viewtron_Remembered_Roundtable-6">[6]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Reception">Reception</h2></div>

<a href="Ahoy!" title="Ahoy!">Ahoy!</a> praised Viewtron in its November 1985 issue, citing e-commerce, chat, news, and games as strengths and adding that the service had "the best customer service department it has ever been my pleasure to call."<a href="#cite_note-behling198511-26">[26]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite class="citation book cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=oj4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT5">InfoWorld Sep 15, 1980</a>. 15 September 1980.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-Poynter_online_article_about_Viewtron-2"><a href="#cite_ref-Poynter_online_article_about_Viewtron_2-0">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFFinberg2003" class="citation news cs1">Finberg, Howard I. (2003-10-29). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=52769">"Before the Web, There Was Viewtron"</a>. Poynteronline.com. Retrieved 2007-09-03.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-uiowa.edu-3">^ <a href="#cite_ref-uiowa.edu_3-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-uiowa.edu_3-1">b</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/cpsr/nttscrpt.txt">"Script of The New Tech Times Program Number 113"</a>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a> <cite class="citation news cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/CARLSON/history/viewtron.htm">"Viewtron"</a>. University of Florida Interactive Media Center. Retrieved 2007-09-03.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PC8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16">Negotiations to buy Viewtron fail: Knight-Ridder shuts down service</a>, <a href="InfoWorld" title="InfoWorld">InfoWorld</a>, April 7, 1986, p. 16

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<li id="cite_note-Viewtron_Remembered_Roundtable-6">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Viewtron_Remembered_Roundtable_6-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Viewtron_Remembered_Roundtable_6-1">b</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Viewtron_Remembered_Roundtable_6-2">c</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/17740/viewtron-remembered-roundtable/">"Viewtron Remembered Roundtable"</a>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-PCWorld_Project_Failures-7"><a href="#cite_ref-PCWorld_Project_Failures_7-0">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFWidman2008" class="citation web cs1">Widman, Jake (October 9, 2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/152103/it_project_failures.html">"Lessons Learned: IT's Biggest Project Failures"</a>. PCWorld. Retrieved October 23, 2012.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/17740/viewtron-remembered-roundtable/">"Viewtron Remembered Roundtable"</a>. <q>Because my staff had planned from day one that this was likely to happen, we needed about 24 hours to tweak our code to work in the new system. Not so with other departments. The "vision" wasn't very far out.</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-9"><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-19.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>. <q>Like letters to the editor, people can enter frames for everyone else to read. There will be editorial control. We'll read the messages first and not let anything through we consider libelous or obscene</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-10"><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-20.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>. <q>Discussion about users always centered on what was being offered for them to consume rather than what they might do with the technology to share information once it was in their possession</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-11"><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-31.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>. <q>Bulletin board contributors were held at arm's length when they tried to converse. In the rare case where individuals' innovative uses were recorded, they were derided, and the picture of a dystopia without newspapers was painted.</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-12"><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-20.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>. <q>It was always assumed early adopters would be welloff</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-13"><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a> <cite class="citation book cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA30">Floridians Experiment with Videotex Buying</a>. 9 April 1984.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-14"><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.magazine.org/report-coral-gables-knight-ridder/att-viewtron-test">"REPORT FROM CORAL GABLES: THE KNIGHT-RIDDER/AT&T VIEWTRON TEST"</a>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-15"><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-23.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>. <q>The memo described the general stability of the Southern Bell phone network that would provide Viewtron data connection.</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-16"><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/carlson/history/viewtron.htm">"Viewtron"</a>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-17"><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a> <cite class="citation book cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Oi8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA11">User Group Offers to Buy Viewtron</a>. 31 March 1986.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-18"><a href="#cite_ref-18">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.academia.edu/948533">"Creating Community-Connection Experiences"</a>. <q>People bought it. We delivered. They were satisfied. But they quit using it because they didn't really want it. It wasn't more news or more information that users wanted, it was communication—interaction not with a machine, but with each other.</q></cite>

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<li id="cite_note-19"><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a> <cite class="citation book cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jC8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13-IA6">InfoWorld Oct 7, 1985</a>. 7 October 1985.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-20"><a href="#cite_ref-20">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-25.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>. <q>A crossed out section of the memo reads: "Don't expect videotext to follow the newspaper model. It will probably become a much more competitive business, with much lower barriers to entry and exit." Recognizing the low barriers to entry and crossing that statement out of the memo suggests an unwillingness to recognize the shaping of the technology that was happening before VCA's eyes. This also speaks to the nature of the project itself as an experiment in a technology by a company who viewed that same technology as a threat. At times it seems as though KR was content to build a $50 million technological straw man just to watch it burn.</q></cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-21"><a href="#cite_ref-21">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-28.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>. <q>In fact, internal documents show a strong understanding of the challenges of providing a product that could potentially create its own market and an understanding of the new market emerging as people shaped the technology. It was not ignorance that led VCA to shut down; it was a fully conscious decision not to pursue the technology that, when fully developed would have low profit margins and low barriers to entry. Rather than continuing to develop online media, they chose to kill the project. They began to envision a world beyond proprietary electronic media. They did not like it, and KR got out after losing $50 million, which was, after all, the price of a midsized newspaper at the time...It often seems at though the project was an expensive exercise in proving that the newspaper was a superior information delivery format.</q></cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-22"><a href="#cite_ref-22">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-26.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-23"><a href="#cite_ref-23">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/17740/viewtron-remembered-roundtable/">"Viewtron Remembered Roundtable"</a>. <q>Viewtron was spending about 80 percent of its budget to create news, which generated less than 20 percent of the revenue. That's when KR executives decided that this was NOT a news medium and they wanted to continue to be a news company.</q></cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-24"><a href="#cite_ref-24">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/17740/viewtron-remembered-roundtable/">"Viewtron Remembered Roundtable"</a>. <q>The more closely we approached a viable service, the less it looked like a newspaper.</q></cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-25"><a href="#cite_ref-25">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://citation.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/5/7/1/pages375714/p375714-27.php">"Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology"</a>.</cite>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-behling198511-26"><a href="#cite_ref-behling198511_26-0">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFBehling,_B._W.1985" class="citation news cs1">Behling, B. W. (November 1985). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/stream/Ahoy_Issue_23_1985-11_Ion_International_US#page/n81/mode/2upg">"Viewtron"</a>. Ahoy!. pp. 83–84. Retrieved 27 June 2014.</cite>

</li>

</ol></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Further_reading">Further reading</h2></div>

<cite id="CITEREFUrrows1984" class="citation magazine cs1">Urrows, Henry (April 9, 1984). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA30">"Floridians experiment with videotex buying"</a>. <a href="InfoWorld" title="InfoWorld">InfoWorld</a>. pp. 30–31.</cite>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6DVBPmo4Co">AT&T Archives: Viewtron Introduction</a> on <a href="YouTube_video_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="YouTube video (identifier)">YouTube</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgYkpk9nJnE">AT&T Archives - The Viewtron System and Sceptre Videotex Terminal (1983)</a> on <a href="YouTube_video_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="YouTube video (identifier)">YouTube</a></li></ul>

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</style><div id="Videotex163" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="Videotex" title="Videotex">Videotex</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Services</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Viewdata" title="Viewdata">Viewdata</a> (1975)</li>

<li><a href="Telidon" title="Telidon">Telidon</a> (1978)</li>

<li><a href="Prestel" title="Prestel">Prestel</a> (1979)</li>

<li><a href="Videotex#Netherlands" title="Videotex">Viditel</a> (1980)</li>

<li><a href="Minitel" title="Minitel">Minitel</a> (1982)</li>

<li><a href="Bildschirmtext" title="Bildschirmtext">Bildschirmtext</a> (1983)</li>

<li><a href="Boston_CitiNet" title="Boston CitiNet">Boston CitiNet</a> (1983)</li>

<li><a href="Captain_(videotex)" title="Captain (videotex)">Captain</a> (1983)</li>

<li><a href="Genesis_Storytime" title="Genesis Storytime">Genesis Storytime</a> (1983)</li>

<li><a href="Beltel" title="Beltel">Beltel</a> (1985)</li>

<li><a href="Microtex_666" title="Microtex 666">Microtex 666</a> (1986)</li>

<li><a href="Bistel" title="Bistel">Bistel</a> (1986)</li>

<li><a href="Videotex#Ireland" title="Videotex">Irish Minitel</a> (1988)</li>

<li><a href="Singapore_Teleview" title="Singapore Teleview">Singapore Teleview</a> (1991)</li></ul>

</div></td><td class="noviewer navbox-image" rowspan="3" style="width:1px;padding:0 0 0 2px"><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Terminals</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="BBC_Micro_expansion_unit#Prestel_adapter" title="BBC Micro expansion unit">BBC Micro</a> (1981)</li>

<li><a href="MUPID" title="MUPID">MUPID</a> (1981)</li>

<li><a href="AT%26T_Sceptre" title="AT&T Sceptre">AT&T Sceptre</a> (1983)</li>

<li><a href="Alex_(videotex_service)" title="Alex (videotex service)">Alextel</a> (1988)</li>

<li><a href="Singapore_Teleview#Terminal" title="Singapore Teleview">Singapore Teleview Terminal</a> (1991)</li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Standards</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="NAPLPS" title="NAPLPS">NAPLPS</a></li>

<li><a href="Videotex_character_set" title="Videotex character set">Videotex character set</a></li>

<li><a href="Antiope_(teletext)" title="Antiope (teletext)">Antiope</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="3"><div> <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Videotex" class="extiw external" title="commons:Category:Videotex">Commons category</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div><div class="zim-footer">

This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-03-19" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Viewtron&oldid=1281350172">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

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